'24: Live Another Day' Recap: '1:00 PM - 2:00 PM'

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When Jack Bauer made his triumphant return last week, 24: Live Another Day wasn't without its flaws, but it was still pretty damn enjoyable. The season's third episode tones down the action that propelled the first two hours, and treats us largely to backstory for characters who are still not quite convincing, except for the show's trademark habit of making the final few minutes count for something.

Jack and Chloe find the corpse of Derek Yates, easily deducing that it was Yates' lady friend Simone that did him in, and they set off in pursuit of her. At the same time, CIA would-be hotshot Kate ignores her boss's order to get back to the office, and instead knocks out Yates' drug dealer, hoping he'll lead them to Yates and by extension Jack. She'll have to move really fast, though, because our hero has found Simone on a departing train - and there is never any scene in an action show on a train that goes well.

Simone claims that Jack is trying to kill her, which buys her enough time to slip through the crowd at the next stop, and slip right past a distracted Chloe. "You missed her? How?" Jack demands incredulously, as he should, and Chloe admits that she thought she saw her ex-husband Morris and their son Prescott - who died in a car accident sometime over the past four years. Time for a good old-fashioned Jack Bauer hug, followed by another mini-speech about how much he needs her help.

Back in the land of politics, Mark is having another meeting with his henchman Ron about his super-secret plan to hand Jack over to the Russians. Such a thing would require President Heller's signature, and Mark says he'll bring it to the President, but then claims he's discussing something else when Audrey overhears them. She's still upset about how harshly Mark came down on her father; he responds with wanting her to convince her father not to address Parliament as he'd planned. "I'll talk to him," Audrey says reluctantly, and we wonder how these two ever got married in the first place. Especially because Mark just forged the President's signature on the paperwork for Jack's rendition.

Chloe has identified Simone as their next target, and Jack instantly recognizes her as Margot's daughter. We get a capsule backstory on our villains, followed by a cut to mother and daughter being reunited. Simone hands over the all-important drone-controlling device she took from Yates, which is then brought to her brother to do his thing with. Behind him, we see a screen of several high-profile targets for the reprogrammed drones, including the Houses of Parliament and 10 Downing Street - basically all the places in London you'd expect terrorists to attack.